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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

734-736 West Broad St - VCU demolition?

Here's a great shot, courtesy of Joey Harrison, of 734-736 West Broad St from 1990. Over time I grew to appreciate this building, the lettering was amazing! More recently, this building was renovated to look closer to it the way it must have looked when it was built in 1889, and served as the home of Common Groundz Coffee Shop.

Unfortunately, VCU filed a demolition permit last Fall for this building, and the one behind it. The Historic Richmond Foundation has some information on this building's plight, and Richmond BizSense ran an article last Fall stating that the demolition plans were on hold. More recently, Style Weekly ran a short story saying the demolition plans were on, and the addition to the VCU apartments next door were scheduled to open in the Fall of 2012. Anyone know the current status of this building?

5 comments:

  1. If they do demolish it, I sure hope that someone has the sense to save that sign. It's beautiful.

    In the late 70s, I used to go in there to buy shirts when I was in my "white short-sleeved shirts with epaulets" fashion phase.

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  2. Will VCU ever stop knocking down the historic buildings

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  3. I too have issue with razing century old buildings sometimes, but this instance, isn't one of them. This is a building that has gone unnoticed by Richmonders for years. Despite a brief stint as a coffee shop people pass this building everyday and think nothing of it. For example, the sign has been gone for years. Because something is old, I'm not sure that classifies it as "Historic." No one is suggesting we demolish the Old City Hall here. It was an old uniforms building. Before that, probably a hardware or grocery. We gotta learn to pick our battles.

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  4. Here's more on the saga of
    VCU vs "Common Groundz".

    http://www.gjwn.net/news/?s=Common+Groundz

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